KANATA, Ontario (AP) -- Alexei Yashin didn't realize it was over until he saw his Ottawa Senators teammates vaulting the Corel Centre boards.Yashin's hard wrist shot on a power-play 2:47 into overtime gave the Senators a 2-1 win Sunday over the New Jersey Devils and a 2-1 lead in their best-of-7 Eastern Conference quarter-final series. Game 4 is Tuesday.
With Devils defenseman Lyle Odelein off for hauling down forward Magnus Arvedson on a break, Yashin took a perfect cross-ice pass from Janne Laukkanen and banked a shot between the pads of goalie Martin Brodeur.
"I didn't understand right away what happened," Yashin insisted, despite the ear-splitting roar from the capacity crowd of 18,500. "But when I saw the guys jumping over the boards I was very happy."
Yashin, the broad-shouldered Russian center with the soft hands, wasn't the only reluctant believer.
"I tried to squeeze my pads as hard as I could, but it wasn't enough," Brodeur said.
As for Devils coach Jacques Lemaire, his take on the game won't be known until Monday.
"He's a little upset and thought it might be better if I came out," assistant coach Robbie Ftorek told the post-game media throng.
The Devils, the Eastern Conference champions who finished 24 points ahead of eighth-place Ottawa, played about as well as expected, but must be starting to wonder whether last year's post-season goal drought has returned.
New Jersey outshot the Senators 31-22 -- including a 12-3 margin in the third period -- but was stymied by the play of goaltender Damian Rhodes and his fail-safe goalposts.
Dave Andreychuk hit the right post in overtime moments before Arvedson was pulled down as he tried to outrace Odelein one-on-one to the Jersey net.
Midway through the third period, with the score tied 1-1, Rhodes robbed Steve Thomas with a pad save on a clear breakaway.
"We have to work on our discipline a little bit and on our scoring chances," said Ftorek, who otherwise liked the Devils' game.
Both Ottawa goals came on power plays and the Senators didn't appear overly inflated about their performance.
"We haven't got them on the run yet," said checking forward Bruce Gardiner. "There's a lot of experience in that room over there."
New Jersey's Bob Carpenter and Ottawa's Laukkanen -- who also set up Yashin's overtime winner -- traded goals barely four minutes apart early in a second period that mostly belonged to the Senators.
The first and third periods were owned by the Devils.
"We didn't have a great start tonight but as the game went along we gradually started taking over," Rhodes said.
Actually it was Rhodes who took over, shaking the tag of wilting on home ice from a few disastrous outings at the Corel Centre as the regular season wore down.
"Every game he's played against New Jersey he's been tremendous," Senators coach Jacques Martin said.
The play of Rhodes and the Senators' composed resilience are the two elements the Devils must master -- hardly insurmountable but more nettlesome with each Ottawa win.
"We're a team that has nothing to lose," Senators defenseman Lance Pitlick said. "We're not projected to win this thing."
#2 PITTSBURGH PEGUINS vs #7 MONTREAL CANADIENS
MONTREAL (AP) -- Shayne Corson scored two goals and the Montreal Canadiens shook off their home-ice jitters with a 3-1 playoff victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night.
The win gave Montreal a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference series. Game 4 is set for Wednesday night at the Molson Centre.
Martin Rucinsky had a goal for Montreal in the first period after Jaromir Jagr opened the scoring for the Penguins.
A less-than sellout crowd of 20,520 saw the Canadiens come out on top of a stifling defensive battle -- holding the Penguins scoreless on six power-play opportunities while going 1-for-4 themselves with the man advantage.
The Canadiens were reminded countless times this week about their losing home record since moving from the Forum to the Molson Centre in 1996 (now 39-42-17, including 2-4 in the playoffs) and looked nervous until Pittsburgh opened the scoring 5:33 into the game.
A bad change of defense by Montreal allowed Jagr to glide in alone on the right side and beat Andy Moog with a shot between the legs for his first of the series.
The Canadiens outworked Pittsburgh from then on and outshot them 22-20 overall.
Some solid Montreal forechecking led to the tying goal at 17:10, when Brian Savage fed Rucinsky alone in front to beat Tom Barrasso up high from the edge of the crease.
Corson was stopped on two shots from the side of the net, but then converted a feed from Vincent Damphousse with a shot that went in off Barrasso's foot on a power play 4:47 into the second period.
Mark Recchi hit Corson with a pass cutting in alone on Barrasso and the big left wing fired a shot at 9:56 of the third period for his second of the game and the series.
The Penguins dominated Montreal on faceoffs in the opening two games in Pittsburgh, but the Canadiens turned the tables with home-ice advantage, winning 31 of 52 through the first two periods.
They also made a small change in their three-defenseman checking scheme against Jagr, using Peter Popovic instead of Igor Ulanov with Valdimir Malakhov and Zarley Zalapski.
#3 PHILADELPHIA FLYERS vs #6 BUFFALO SABERS
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Miroslav Satan scored two goals and the Buffalo Sabres scored four times in the second period to beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-1 Monday night after two tight games in their first-round playoff series.
Satan scored in each of the first two periods as the Sabres built a 5-0 lead and thoroughly outplayed the Flyers to take a 2-1 lead in the seven-game Eastern Conference series. Game 4 will be played Wednesday night in Buffalo.
Game 3 was a dramatic difference from the first two games in Philadelphia, where each team won 3-2 decisions.
Sabres goaltender Dominik Hasek overcame a shaky start and made 31 saves. Michal Grosek, Darryl Shannon and Brian Holzinger also scored for Buffalo before Hasek lost the shutout on Dan McGillis' power-play goal with 6:09 remaining. Vaclav Varada closed the scoring for Buffalo with 37 seconds left.
The game was close before the Sabres put together a flawless second period and built the five-goal lead in what became their best performance of the season.
With the four goals in the second, Buffalo chased Sean Burke from the Philadelphia net and essentially made the third period a formality. The Sabres scored every way possible, getting two shorthanded goals, one power-play goal and another at even strength.
The Flyers already were stunned when Grosek and Satan scored 1:52 apart in the second period to give the Sabres a 3-0 lead before Shannon and Holzinger made it 5-0 with shorthanded goals.
Grosek got the Sabres moving 9:37 into the period when he took a backhand pass in the slot from Matthew Barnaby and beat Burke with a quick wrist shot into the top corner.
Satan made it 3-0 on the power play when he grabbed the rebound from Alexei Zhitnik's shot from the point and found a near-open net. The Flyers might have been finished, but the Sabres were just getting started.
Shannon and Holzinger scored shorthanded 45 second apart in pushing the lead to 5-0 _ which was way too many for Philadelphia to overcome.
Satan scored 2:20 into the game when he took advantage of a lucky bounce on the power play and scored his first goal since March 27.
Donald Audette was attempting to pass the puck around the boards when it ricocheted off Holzinger's skate, bounced off the Flyers' net and onto the stick of Satan near the crease. Satan slid the puck under Burke as the goalie went down.
#4 WASHINGTON CAPITALS vs #5 BOSTON BRUINS
BOSTON (AP) -- During a streak of seven consecutive playoff overtime losses, the Washington Capitals figure they deserved to win one or two. But seven times in a row, the breaks worked against them.So it was without apologies that the Capitals accepted a gift of a victory on Sunday, delivered when the referee waved off a Boston goal in the first overtime and clinched when Joe Juneau scored at 6:31 of the second.
"It's highway robbery that we won this hockey game," Capitals coach Ron Wilson admitted after beating Boston 3-2 to take a two games to one lead in their best-of-7 series.
"We're catching breaks, and we're a franchise that never seems to get any," he said. "At some point in time, fate has to be on your side. And tonight it was."
Olaf Kolzig stopped 52 shots and Sergei Gonchar scored twice in regulation for the Capitals. Byron Dafoe made 24 saves for Boston, which will host Game 4 on Tuesday night.
For the second consecutive game, the Capitals took a 2-0 lead; for the second consecutive game, the Bruins rallied to tie it; and for the second consecutive game, it took two overtimes to settle it. On Friday night, Boston won 4-3 after 20:54 of overtime.
On Sunday, the Bruins tied it 10:59 into the third period and appeared to win it on P.J. Axelsson's goal 15:43 into the first overtime. But referee Paul Devorski, with help from the linesman and the replay official, waved off the goal after the replay showed Tim Taylor's left skate was in the crease.
"We were ready to go to the locker room, but somebody said they were going upstairs," Bruins forward Steve Heinze said. "It was a good celebration, but all for naught."
NHL rules say that a goal should be disallowed when an offensive player is in the crease. However, Bruins general manager Harry Sinden, who takes an active role in league affairs, said that the league decided this year that goals should not be waved off unless the attacking player was involved in the play.
"They told the referees that when a player has a toenail in the crease or something like that, let the referee call it," Bruins general manager Harry Sinden said. "But the referees say, 'I know what happened, but let me go upstairs (to the video replay booth) to cover my (self)."'
The NHL rule book printed before the season started says nothing about referee discretion. "I don't know where that came from," Devorski told a pool reporter.But an NHL spokesman, relaying comments from director of officals Bryan Lewis, said that an Oct. 30 directive sent to the officials gave the referee the authority to allow a goal even if a player preceded the puck into the crease. Once the referee asked for help from the video officials, though, he must abide by their decision.
The Capitals had not won an overtime game in the playoffs since a 1991 first-round victory over the New York Rangers. They were outshot 54-27 on Sunday -- including 14-3 in the third period and 19-9 in overtime.
"Everybody would admit we stole the game from Boston today," Juneau said. "But if you remember, we should have won the last one."
Juneau connected with Adam Oates on the game-winner, reaching out to his forehand to take a pass from the back of the net and snapping it back across Dafoe's body into the top corner of the net.
Sergei Gonchar, who scored only five goals all season, scored both of Washington's goals in regulation. He has just 32 goals in 238 career regular-season games but eight goals and six assists in 16 playoff games.
Gonchar put Washington up 1-0 with 90 seconds left in the first period and then added a second goal with 5:45 to play in the second. He was trailing a 4-on-2 when he took a drop pass from Dale Hunter and slapped it past Dafoe.
The 2-0 lead silenced the crowd, but the Bruins had come back from the same deficit in Game 2 to avoid a 2-0 hole in games. Kyle McLaren cut the lead in half when he put a nice pass from Sergei Samsonov past Kolzig with 60 seconds left in the second period.
The Bruins tied it with 9:01 left in the third when Joe Reekie got caught throwing an elbow with the teams already playing 4-on-4. Sergei Samsonov took advantage of the open ice to find Ray Bourque across the ice; Bourque's shot was deflected past Kolzig by Dimitri Khristich to tie it 2-2.
The Capitals had hoped to use 52-goal scorer Peter Bondra, who sprained his ankle in the first period on Friday night and did not return. He has been listed as day-to-day, and he was a scratch for Game 2.
Chris Simon, who missed the last 46 games of the regular season with a bad shoulder, was also expected back Sunday, but he was scratched from the lineup, too.
